Hello, and welcome
I’m Carly L. Bodnar, a stage & screen director, educator, and artist.
Throughout my career, three things have guided me and my work - creativity, connection, and compassion.
My creativity doesn’t fit neatly into a single box. It manifests itself in many different ways, including directing theater and film, acting, producing, teaching, and coaching. (And sometimes making seashell jewelry and candles!) Even in administrative or service roles, I’ve used my creativity for problem-solving and communicating effectively. Each new creative pursuit builds on my experiences, while allowing me to grow and challenge myself in new, exciting ways.
Regardless of how my creativity is manifesting, it’s driven by a desire to create connection. I love connecting with people, whether it’s with a huge audience watching a production I directed, or one-on-one over post-show drinks. I direct theater and film to spark a connection between artists and audiences. I teach to connect people with each other, so new creative communities can grow. I coach to help others connect with themselves, and the inherent power and creativity they have within.
All of this connection is in service of creating compassion. Storytelling is about being witnessed - we all want to be seen, understood, accepted. This focus on compassion and empathy informs the way I direct and coach. I always strive to witness, understand, and accept, which influences how I interact with colleagues and clients, and the type of work I create.
Thanks to these three ideas, my career has spanned multiple forms and followed several paths. As I continue my journey with a focus on directing and coaching, I know they will keep on guiding me to create and do work that is meaningful and necessary.
Throughout my career, three things have guided me and my work - creativity, connection, and compassion.
My creativity doesn’t fit neatly into a single box. It manifests itself in many different ways, including directing theater and film, acting, producing, teaching, and coaching. (And sometimes making seashell jewelry and candles!) Even in administrative or service roles, I’ve used my creativity for problem-solving and communicating effectively. Each new creative pursuit builds on my experiences, while allowing me to grow and challenge myself in new, exciting ways.
Regardless of how my creativity is manifesting, it’s driven by a desire to create connection. I love connecting with people, whether it’s with a huge audience watching a production I directed, or one-on-one over post-show drinks. I direct theater and film to spark a connection between artists and audiences. I teach to connect people with each other, so new creative communities can grow. I coach to help others connect with themselves, and the inherent power and creativity they have within.
All of this connection is in service of creating compassion. Storytelling is about being witnessed - we all want to be seen, understood, accepted. This focus on compassion and empathy informs the way I direct and coach. I always strive to witness, understand, and accept, which influences how I interact with colleagues and clients, and the type of work I create.
Thanks to these three ideas, my career has spanned multiple forms and followed several paths. As I continue my journey with a focus on directing and coaching, I know they will keep on guiding me to create and do work that is meaningful and necessary.
What I'm Working on...
PINKY PROMISE
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At Plays & Players Theatre as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival
This world-premiere production explores the nuanced emotional lives of three tweens on the precipice of adolescence, set in the vibrant, emotionally-charged microcosm of a summer camp in 2005. When a deep rift forms in the friendship between our ensemble Heidi, Miriam, and Phoebe, what unravels is a comedic and heartbreaking meditation on loyalty, identity, and growing up. At its core, Pinky Promise is about a moment that can feel world-ending at age twelve, and still echo decades later. Pinky Promise is created through Paper Doll’s signature collaborative devising process, with surreal visuals, heightened physicality, and a fierce comedic edge, the piece captures the terrifying exhilaration of change—where hobby horses, pop songs, and the sacred power of a pinky promise collide. Adult performers embody their preteen characters with uncanny precision, highlighting the tension between how we experience youth and how we remember it. In its most ambitious production to date, Paper Doll welcomes Carly L. Bodnar as guest director. Funny, painful, and achingly familiar, Pinky Promise invites audiences to revisit the formative fractures of early friendship—and ask how our earliest heartbreaks shape who we become. |
Virtual Reading
ABOUT REPROECO; A VIRTUAL READING
Six short plays by six different playwrights that connect our reproductive health and our environment. Powerful storytellers use humor, mythology, futurism and drama to look at how our bodies, our communities and our futures are forever affected by chemicals, plastics, industrial waste, and the need for safe drinking water, air and soil.
Six short plays by six different playwrights that connect our reproductive health and our environment. Powerful storytellers use humor, mythology, futurism and drama to look at how our bodies, our communities and our futures are forever affected by chemicals, plastics, industrial waste, and the need for safe drinking water, air and soil.
Check back as I'll continue updating this page with more projects.
Director | Coach | Artist
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Director
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ArtisticI started my artistic journey as an actor, performing in both traditional plays and devised works and studying a variety of acting techniques. I’ve also shared my knowledge as a teaching artist through various regional theater education programs, and am discovering a new passion for writing fiction and screenplays.
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